Few other photographs of McCartney wearing glasses exist. He wore them occasionally in public during the Sixties, and on the front cover of a Beatles fan magazine in 1964 but has not been photographed wearing them since. A spokesman for McCartney last night said he did not wear contact lenses, nor wore glasses in private.

The image is one of 40 taken by celebrated photographer Frank Herrmann on March 30, 1967, and features in an exclusive spread in The Mail on Sunday's Live magazine today.

Photographers were rarely granted access to the Fab Four in the studio and the negatives from this session were later lost.

Our pictures have been painstakingly recreated from contact sheets kept by Mr Herrmann, who said: "It was obvious they weren't comfortable with me around. Abbey Road was considered a private sanctuary."